Do You Know Too Much?

I just recently got turned onto “Breaking Bad”.  Friends and family have applauded this show as seriously addicting and scary bad for quite a while, and maybe that’s why I haven’t tuned in. I certainly don’t need another TV show to follow.  (TV is my guilty pleasure and I don’t always discriminate between sappy, really good, and just plain ridiculous, I like them all)  Anyway, I’ve only watched all of one show, the very first pilot, so I have four years of shows to catch up on. I will never have to rent a movie again!  I can hole up on a rainy day in CA or a snowy day in CO and totally get my fix.

Ok, enough history. Here’s what I like about the show and the creator. Starting with the show. For those of you that haven’t watched it, the show is actually kind of humorous and is based on a Suburban dad and HS science teacher that learns he has terminal cancer. In need of extra cash, he throws caution to the wind and gives up his law abiding lifestyle and goes in cahoots with one of his students to make, sell, and distribute crystal meth.  By all accounts, he should fail, or at the very least, get caught. (Again, I’m only basing my opinions off the first show), but he doesn’t.  Which leads us to take note.  When we take risks and don’t get so caught up in the “what if I fail scenario?”, we are far more likely to succeed. Waiting for the perfect moment or making sure that everything is perfect before we launch is what holds many people back.  Perfect NEVER happens. Just do it, thrown in with a lot of hard work, a little common sense and flexibility and the odds are you will be just fine.

The other thing about the show that stuck a chord was an article written by the creator himself.  In the article, he (Vince Gilligan) talked about his decision to NOT subscribe to Showtime as being the best mistake he ever made.  You see, his pitch for a show about a law abiding, suburban dad dealing drugs was done in 2005, just as the critically acclaimed show WEEDS was launched on Showtime, a show he knew absolutely nothing about.  Had he known about his “competition”, he says he may very well have abandoned the idea thinking all the good ideas are already taken and it would never be picked up.  That would have been sad, because that means the award winning show “Breaking Bad” would never have happened. Fortunately, even though Breaking Bad and Weeds have a similar plot line, the creators of both shows found their own special twist that makes it possible for both shows to air and be successful.  I hear from women all the time that say, “Oh no, someone else is doing my idea!” and feel all their hard work is for naught or that they shouldn’t start their business.  If this were true, we would only have one airline, one coffee place, one shoe line, one make-up line etc.  All ideas are not created equal. What is important is to find your secret sauce and implement your unique selling proposition and with the right ingredients, your company can go up against anyone!

xo, jan